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Report from the Frontlines: Origins of the 99% Movement – Published on Global Research.ca, by David DeGraw, Sept. 29, 2011. (First published on Amped Status: How Anonymous, AmpedStatus, the NYC General Assembly, US Day of Rage, Adbusters and Thousands of Individual Actions Led to the Occupation of Liberty Park and the Birth of a Movement).

… The road that led to the successful occupation has been a long, hard and winding one. When you go to Liberty Park, into the heart of the occupation, you will see a very diverse group of people with opinions across the entire political spectrum. It is the very essence of a ground-up grassroots decentralized movement.

Everyone there has their own individual story on what brought them to take such a strong and inspiring stand in support this action. I urge members of the press and people interested in the movement to begin a dialogue with any one of the people taking part. There are many fascinating stories to be heard and a deeper understanding of what’s happening is impossible without hearing from a plurality of voices.

To give some background information, the following is a timeline of my 19-month long personal experience within the movement:

The Birth of the 99% Movement: … //

… As the debate among Anonymous A99 was happening and a date for occupation was being finalized, Adbusters magazine issued an open call for an occupation of Wall Street on September 17th. Anonymous, A99 OpESR, US Day of Rage and the NYCGA quickly endorsed the action. With the NYCGA focused on community-based organizing, Adbusters, Anonymous, AmpedStatus, A99, US Day of Rage, WagingNonViolence and many other sites actively pushed out the message online urging people to take part in the action. WeAreThe99Percent.com and OccupyWallSt.org were then Independently launched to directly support the action. Indymedia’s Global Revolution media team provided a livestream video feed to cover the event, which then inspired many more people to come and join the occupation once it had begun. It was this serendipitous confluence of decentralized Independent groups and thousands of individuals taking it upon themselves to take action that helped make the successful occupation of Liberty Park possible.

Note: There are definitely other significant groups that played a key role. In such a decentralized movement, it’s hard to keep track of all the efforts being put forth. We will feature other perspectives in the days ahead.

Moving Forward:

Ultimately, all of the groups mentioned throughout this report were just the seeds that helped launch what is now known as the OccupyWallStreet 99% Movement. As the occupation of Liberty Park continues to grow and enters it’s third week, with no signs of protesters even considering leaving, the people most actively taking part are committed to remaining a decentralized leaderless movement based on the direct democratic process of deciding on future demands and actions through a consensus of those participating. In the spirit of the movement, people acting on their own have begun like-minded actions and occupations throughout the country.

The only unifying call to action seems to be:

Anything you can do to rebel against the system of economic tyranny in a non-violent manner is welcome.

As Anonymous A99 wrote in response to questions about their movement:

We are a DECENTRALIZED non-violent movement. If you are looking to contact one of our leaders, go to the nearest mirror and peer deeply into it. It may take some time, but, eventually, one of our leaders will appear with answers to all of your questions.

What more can you say?

As I’m typing this, the NYC General Assembly meeting just came to an end, I hear the sound of drums, looks like it’s time for another march. An NYPD officer who supports our efforts just gave me a nod and said, Hey man, you better get back to the frontlines. The troops are on the move. It’s another day of battle at Liberty Park.